Well today is officially day 3 of the Victorian School Holidays and I am still alive. A little on the ‘I stayed up too late blogging’ side but alive and awake and pondering my day.

Surviving school holidays has really become a massive priority in this house as we had a slightly extended christmas break that was 7 weeks long and i’m certain that if it had of been a day longer I would be locked up right now.

I know where I went wrong during those holidays though, and i am not about to let it happen again. It’s all in the routine and planning.

Yes thats right, even our holiday breaks must be organised to ensure quality time be well…quality and to preserve whats left of my fading sanity. 🙂

ROUTINE:

Kids thrive on routine. I have proven this thoery in my own home.

When we run to a routine the children tend to cooperate, do what we ask them to and know whats expected of them.

When we run with no routine we have nothing but CHAOS!!

Our routine is rather extensive, however it doesnt have to be complicated at all.

If your regular routine involves being up and organised for school by a certain time, you might want to relax a little on that (afterall it is holidays) but if you always make the beds before you leave the house for the day, keep it in the routine.

There is nothing worse that having to start a routine from scratch after each holiday break.

PLANNING:

Over the Christmas break we had alot of days just sitting around at home in the same 4 walls doing not much of anything. BIG MISTAKE!!!

These holidays I am making sure that we have something to do everyday to keep us all busy!

This is where my beloved whiteboard comes in…..

My white board on Cleaning day!!! LOL

On my whiteboard, which is displayed in our hallway I have written the days down one side and the activity or plan next to them.

This way everyone in the house knows what to expect on each day.

The kids get a real kick out of reading it each morning and it keeps them from pulling out other activities when we dont have time for them or if we are heading out the door.

I have made sure I have included activities that are at home (save’s heaps of money), with friends and something special in the break aswell.

If there is something I want to surprise them with I will write something like Surprise Adventure to keep them guessing.

Friday – Pick Up Mackenzi for her school holiday visit & play at the Fairy Playground.

Saturday – Crafts at home, (Aria to a party), Family Lunch, Twilight Local Footy Match.

Sunday – Steam Train Ride In Maldon.

If you’re struggling for ideas on things to do, contact your local Visitor Information Centre. They often know what’s on around town during the break, google activities, crafts & games and ideas to keep the children busy on the quiet days.

So hopefully the weather behaves itself and we can enjoy the rest of this week. Be flexible if things change, often things that happen on the spur of the moment leave us with wonderful memories 🙂

It has become our Family Movie & Take Out Night. The highlight being a family friendly DVD and some pizza. With times as hectic as they are these days, it’s nice for all of us to just sit back, unwind and relax in each others company. 🙂

Why a Tuesday you ask?

Aria getting a spot on the couch.

A few reasons.

We used to do our family movie night on a Friday night but often other things would come up and we would end up missing out on it.

Our local DVD Shop hires movies out for $1 on a Tuesday and you can’t argue with that price, New Releases included.

The pizza shop also have specials on a Tuesday that allows us to feed the whole squad for around $20. Much cheaper than any other take-out we have here.

So why is it important to have a regular family time scheduled into our routine?

Well according to Andrew Fuller (Clinical Psychologist & Family Therapist), in his book titled ‘Tricky Kids”, a ritual, together with a sense of belonging is the very foundation of resilience for tricky kids.

I really love his quote : Rituals are the rocks that the river of family life flows around. And I really believe it’s true.

So we have chosen our family movie night as our weekly ritual. No matter what life throws at us our children can rely on the fact that once a week on a Tuesday at 6.30pm we will all sit down together. 🙂